The Tokyo Commodity Exchange (TOCOM) announced today that March 2012 trading volume averaged 119,239 contracts per day, up 5.7% from February 2012. Most of the leading contracts at TOCOM saw volume increase on a month over month basis: the Gold Standard contract was up 12.7% to 55,069 contracts, the Platinum Standard contract rose 9.5% to 15,732 contracts,
Crude Oil was up 14.3% to 6,369 contracts and Gasoline gained 16.6% to 11,345 contracts. Rubber lost ground, down 16% to 8,284 contracts.Crude oil prices hit an 11 month high of 63,550 yen per kiloliter on March 15. Growing tensions with Iran was one notable cause. Gold prices, which rose in February, retreated as market sentiment leaned toward a lower likelihood the FRB would extend quantitative easing. Also of note was the perception that the European financial crisis was easing. TOCOM gold prices fell sharply on March 1 and hovered between 4,360 yen and 4,560 yen per gram through the end of the month.
Open interest at the end of March for all listed contracts totaled 340,927, an increase of 10,698 (up3.2%) from the prior month.
For fiscal year 2011, which ended 31 March, exchange wide volume increased 10.3% to 30,886,528 contracts and daily average volume was up 9.8%, to 125,555 contracts.
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